Kerry Ashton
Actor / Solo Performer / Voice-Over Specialist
Produced & Published Playwright & Author
Director / Theatrical Producer / Songwriter & Singer
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MOSCOW MITCH & THE RUSSIAN REPUBLICANS

7/28/2019

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I quote here from Dana Milbank’s column in the Washington Post on July 26, titled “Mitch McConnell is a Russian Asset”:
 
Mitch McConnell is a Russian asset.

This doesn’t mean he’s a spy, but neither is it a flip accusation. Russia attacked our country in 2016. It is attacking us today. Its attacks will intensify in 2020. Yet each time we try to raise our defenses to repel the attack, McConnell, the Senate majority leader, blocks us from defending ourselves.

Let’s call this what it is: Unpatriotic. The Kentucky Republican is, arguably more than any other American, doing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bidding.

Robert Mueller sat before Congress this week warning that the Russia threat “deserves the attention of every American.” He said “the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in our election is among the most serious” challenges to American democracy he has ever seen. “They are doing it as we sit here, and they expect to do it during the next campaign,” he warned, adding that “much more needs to be done in order to protect against these intrusions, not just by the Russians but others as well.”
 

Not three hours after Mueller finished testifying, Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, went to the Senate floor to request unanimous consent to pass legislation requiring presidential campaigns to report to the FBI any offers of assistance from agents of foreign governments. Representing Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) objected.
 
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) then attempted to move a bill that would require campaigns to report to the FBI contributions by foreign nationals. Again Hyde-Smith, acting on behalf of McConnell, objected.
 
After that, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) tried to force action on bipartisan legislation, written with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and supported by Sens. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), protecting lawmakers from foreign cyber-attacks. “The majority leader, our colleague from Kentucky, must stop blocking this common-sense legislation and allow this body to better defend itself against foreign hackers,” he said.
 
 “I object,” repeated McConnell’s lackey Hyde-Smith yet again.
 
As Mr. Milbank’s column went on to explain:
 
The next day, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the minority leader, asked for the Senate to pass the Securing America’s Federal Elections Act, already passed by the House, that would direct $600 million in election assistance to states and require backup paper ballots.
 
McConnell himself responded this time, reading from a statement, his chin melting into his chest, his trademark thin smile on his lips. “It’s just a highly partisan bill from the same folks who spent two years hyping up a conspiracy theory about President Trump and Russia,” he said. “Therefore, I object.” McConnell also objected to another attempt by Blumenthal to pass his bill.
 
Pleaded Schumer: “I would suggest to my friend the majority leader: If he doesn’t like this bill, let’s put another bill on the floor and debate it.”
 
But McConnell has blocked all such attempts, including:

A bipartisan bill requiring Facebook, Google and other Internet companies to disclose purchasers of political ads, to identify foreign influence. 
 
A bipartisan bill to ease cooperation between state election officials and federal intelligence agencies.
 
A bipartisan bill imposing sanctions on any entity that attacks a U.S. election.
 
A bipartisan bill with severe new sanctions on Russia for its cybercrimes.
 
McConnell has prevented them all from being considered — over and over again. This is the same McConnell who, in the summer of 2016, when briefed by the CIA along with other congressional leaders on Russia’s electoral attacks, questioned the validity of the intelligence and forced a watering down of a warning letter to state officials about the threat, omitting any mention of Russia.
 

Clearly the Russian-appointed president (which I shall now refer to as His Assholiness—since ‘He’ now believes himself to be our King and quite above the Rule of Law that generations of Americans, both Republican and Democrat, once held sacred and fought and died for) wants Russian help and the help of other foreign governments in our next election! 
 
And McConnell, is quite willing to do anything to stop any attempt to thwart Russian interference. Further, McConnell, the Russian Asset, is willing to do anything to aid and abet our foreign enemies so that the president and he himself as well as all of the Russian-Republicans retain their power.
 
Let’s be clear: Russia attacked our Democracy in 2016. They are attacking America now. And they plan to do so again in the election of 2020. And the Russianpublicans, in particular Mitch McConnell, and His Assholiness, are doing everything they can to welcome and give aid and comfort to our enemies, both foreign and domestic. 
 
Indeed, if a war had been officially declared against Russia when they first began their plan of attack against our democracy in 2014, most of currently elected Republican members in the House of Representatives and the US Senate, particularly Senator McConnell, along with His Assholiness, our 45thpresident and our once-and-future Emperor, could now potentially be found guilty of treason, and face possible execution for their crimes against our country. 
 
Let that statement sink in for a minute. 
 
Joe Scarborough during a broadcast of “Morning Joe” on MSNBC earlier this week gave Mitch McConnell the well-deserved nickname of Moscow Mitch. This should and must stick as McConnell’s new moniker because he is, indeed, as Dana Milbank pointed out in his column, a “Russian Asset.” And he is anti-American and un-American, and a traitor to our country in nearly every respect.
 
As I said in my latest blog last Sunday, America is clearly at a crossroads. The contemptible pile of excrement that now passes as our president has in his own filthy and vile way exposed all of the evil and corruption within our government an in particular within his Russian-supported Republican cabal. His Assholiness has exposed the vile  and dirty backroom deals, utilizing Russian oligarch laundered money, the foreign influence of the murderous Saudi Regime, and the filthy hidden money that has flowed to the Repugnant Ones since the Republican-appointed US Supreme Court—the best Court you can buy—passed the Citizens Uniteddecision, encouraging a deeper and darker swamp in Washington, D.C. 
 
Most of the Republicans in Washington will, I have little doubt, be exposed to have accepted illegal contributions from Russian Oligarchs, funneled through the equally corrupt NRA. 
 
His Assholiness, the Corrupter in Chief and Putin’s Puppet, has so corrupted Washington with his misogyny and pussy-grabbing ways, that all of his pedophile and sex-trafficking friends have been forced to crawl out of the various holes in which they were hiding and brought out into the light of day. How many other American presidents in our history could say that five of their closest friends and allies are felons? Only His Assholiness! 
 
How many presidents could say that among his best friends were two pedophiles currently rotting in prison? Only His Assholiness! 
 
And how many could say that they have been accused of raping a 13-year-old girl (supposedly at Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan Mansion in the early 1990s)? Only His Assholinesshas such a distinguished record among all of our presidents.
 
More than this, if that were not enough, His Assholiness, the Racist in Chief, has turned the “White” House into a symbol of pride for Fascist White Nationalists everywhere.
 
The upcoming election of 2020 is going to be a watershed moment for our country. 
 
Forget the normal issues of a presidential year: the economy, health care, etc. The election in November 2020 is going to be about much more fundamental and existential issues. For example, just what in God’s name, do Americans want our country to become: A symbol for White Nationalist Fascism throughout the entire world or to again become the symbol of Freedom and Tolerance that we once were?
 
In 2020, Americans will once and for all, have to decide first and foremost, whether they give a damn about saving themselves and their country by fighting for exercising their right to vote. Every single American, if they have the right to vote, MUST exercise their right to vote. Period. No Excuses. No more ignoring of elections. No more sitting on the sidelines. Quite frankly, this will be an election like none other of the modern era. It will be a CHOOSE OR DIE moment. Americans have fought and died for us to have the right to vote. There is simply no excuse for hanging back or sitting on the sidelines while Moscow Mitch and His Assholiness hand our country over to Vladimir Putin. 
 
I’m saying it now and as loudly as I can:

​EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN OVER THE AGE OF 18 MUST VOTE IN NOVEMBGER 2020 AND EVERY ELECTION THEREAFTER! PERIOD. NO EXCUSES. GET YOUR LAZY ASSES TO THE POLLS AND PROTECT OUR DEMOCRACY OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES! 
 
Once you are at the polls, you must make a basic decision: Do you vote for the 3 R’s—Russia, Racism, and Rape—or do you vote for the Democrats? And I am quite serious about this. That is how dire our circumstances now are. You will be choosing between a Dictatorship or the Democrats. Period. No more equivocation. You will be called to make a moral choice, not between Republican and Democrat, but between Right and Wrong.
What path should our country take going forward? And before casting that vote, think long and hard about the future you want for your children and grandchildren.
 
I pray to God that we send Moscow Mitch, His Assholiness, and all of the Russian Republicans back to Russia where they belong.
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A CROWD OF DEPLORABLES

7/21/2019

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Remember back to the 2016 presidential campaign when candidate Hillary Clinton was condemned and called out ruthlessly for quite accurately describing her opponents’ supporters as a “basket of deplorables?” Well, now, after the Racist in Chief tweeted that four minority democratic congresswomen should “go back to where they came from,” he gathered a stadium full of his deplorables to what became a KKK Rally. After the Dear Leader lambasted duly-elected Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar—a Somali refugee who immigrated to the US when she was teenager became a nationalized citizen of our country—they violently chanted, “Send her back! Send her back!” must to the satisfaction of our Racist in Chief. Meanwhile, Ilhan Omar is as much or more a citizen of the United States of America as any of the un-American dunderheads in that stadium that night. Indeed, the stadium was filled with deplorables that night.
 
The entire Republican Party is now filled with deplorables. More than deplorable, these folks are anti-American. The Republican Party now blindly follows and salutes a Racist in Chief. They stand against everything that our American Flag is supposed to stand for. Significantly, only four Republicans in the House of Representatives voted with the Democrats to condemn our president’s racist tweets. The remaining 187 Republicans in the House of Representatives chose not to condemn their Dear Leader’s racist comments. The Republican Party and the elected Republicans in office are aiding and abetting a racist and racism. Thus, they have become the Party of Racism, Bigotry, Ignorance, and Hatred. They have no position or policy to run on in 2020, other than Hate (oh, and more tax breaks but only for their wealthy, immoral donors).
 
As I pointed out in my blog last week, according to the Washington Post, the current president’s “remark swiftly united a House Democratic caucus that had been torn apart in recent days by infighting between Pelosi and the four freshman women of color—Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), and Ilhan Omar (Minn.)” Incidentally, three of these four women were born here in the United States. Pressley was born in Cincinatti, Tlaib was born in Detroit and AOC was born in New York, only about 20 miles from where the Orange Monster was born. Omar was born in Somalia; her family fled the county amid civil war when she was a child, and she became a U.S. citizen as a teenager. 
 
Clearly, the Orange Monster believes that anyone who speaks up against him or his policies should be locked up and/or removed from the country at once. With a brain the size of a pea, he struts around like a mini Mussolini, but a highly incompetent one. Aside from being cruel, stupid, ignorant, authoritarian, deeply vindictive and thin-skinned, he is exceedingly racist. His tweets attacking American citizens and telling them they should “go back to where they came from” harken back to the vitriol and hatred he stirred up with his racist “Birther” platitudes.

​Had the Republican establishment immediately spoke up against this racist blighter back then, the Orange Monster would have slunk away into the shadows of his own lies and bile several years ago, and as a country we would never have had him foisted upon the American people by the Russian government. But the Republicans did not want to offend the many racists hiding in their party ranks, so they chose to say nothing. Later, when he ran for the nomination of the Republican Party, again they showed their cowardice by not speaking out and loud about his racism, incompetence and rancor. Once he was chosen as their nominee, they acquiesced in cowardice yet again. At every turn, when given a chance to speak out against this lowlife, and stand up for our Constitution and our Democracy, they cowardly took his side. And now he owns them and they own him. Republicans are now Repugnant Ones, and all of them should be referred to as such. They will never be able to wash off the stench of their leader’s corruption. The once great GOP, the party of Lincoln, now wears all of the disgusting and deplorable colors of America’s Racist Party. 
 
America is clearly at a crossroads. The contemptible pile of excrement that now passes as our president has in his own filthy and vile way, and without ever meaning to, exposed all of the evil and corruption within our government. He has exposed all of the vile backroom deals, the foreign influence of dirty laundered money. He has exposed the corruption within the Republican Party. Most of the Republicans in Washington will, I little doubt, be exposed to have accepted illegal contributions from Russian Oligarchs that was funneled through the equally corrupt NRA. Republicans all the way from local dogcatcher to the White House, will be known for their acquiescence to Russia, traitors all. The Corrupter in Chief, Putin’s Puppet has also so corrupted Washington with his misogyny and pussy-grabbing ways, that all of his pedophile and sex-trafficking friends have been brought out into the light of day. And by his racist rants, he has turned the White House into the “White” House, a great symbol for White Nationalism. Indeed, Kelly Ann Conway and her ilk might as well hang a banner on the front lawn at the White House right now, declaring enthusiastically, “No Coloreds Allowed!” 
 
Regardless of whether or not our Congress does their duty and impeaches and removes all those who have worked in this current administration, starting with the Racist in Chief, as Americans we will have the greatest choice to make of our entire existence: What country do we want our America to become? What will we choose for our country to stand for? If you want an America where all men are created equal, and treated equally under the rule of law, you MUST vote for the Democratic nominee, whoever she is. If you want an America where only white people have rights and protections, then by all means vote the Republican Racists back into office. If you want an America who still has a constitution that it adheres to, and honors and obeys, you MUST vote Democrat. If, on the other hand, you want a Dictatorship, make sure to vote for the Turd in Chief, and prepare to bow down and kiss his ring at every turn. If you are against the caging of children, vote Democrat. If, on the other hand, you enjoy seeing children caged, sexually exploited and trafficked by pedophiles, then vote for the Pedophile in Chief and his fellow lunatics. 
 
So, America, what sort of a nation will you choose to become in 2020, when everyone of us will be called to make a moral choice? It won’t be about the economy this time. You will be forced to choose to become a nation of deplorable racists and rapists and those who aid and abet such activities. Or you can choose to become a nation of laws again, with some sense of morality and human dignity at long last?
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OUR RACIST IN CHIEF

7/14/2019

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​The current resident at the White House, our Racist in Chief, tweeted Sunday that four 
minority, liberal congresswomen should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places where they come from.” 
 
According to the Washington Post, his “remark swiftly united a House Democratic caucus that had been torn apart in recent days by infighting between Pelosi and the four freshman women of color—Democratic Reps. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (Michigan), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), and Ilhan Omar (Minn.)”

I should point out that three of these four women were born here in the United States. Pressley was born in Cincinatti, Tlaib was born in Detroit and AOC was born in New York, only about 20 miles from where the Orange Monster was born. Omar was born in Somalia; her family fled the county amid civil war when she was a child, and she became a U.S. citizen as a teenager. So, for three of these four women, returning to “the country where they came from,” would leave them right here in the good ol’ USA. As for Miss Omar, if we are now asking immigrants who became legal citizens to return to their former countries, almost all of us will require exit visas including our racist pig of a president. Indeed, the OM is the grandson of immigrants, the Drumpfs, of Germany. By his own racist rules, he needs to go back to Germany where his grandparents came from. And by the same token, two of three wives, including our First Lady, should be sent home as well. In fact there is a good bit of evidence that implicates that Melania entered our country as an illegal immigrant. By our racist president’s policies and ideas, she should be locked up in a cage, along with his son Baron, and shipped back to Slovakia.
 
Thankfully, by making his most racist remarks ever, our Criminal in Chief successfully brought the Democratic caucus in the House back together, reminding all of them that the constant threat to our democracy is the living, breathing enemy illegitimately occupying our White House. Speak Pelosi responded by saying that when our president “tells four American Congresswomen to go back to their countries, he reaffirms his plan to ‘Make America Great Again’ has always been about making America white again. Our diversity is our strength and our unity is our power.”
 
The four Democratic congresswomen also fired back at our Racist in Chief, and within only a few hours Democratic lawmakers were united in defending their colleagues again the Orange Monster’s attacks. As Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.)) said, “I’ve been trying to figure out how to bring everybody together—I think the preside4nt just did that for us. Nobody in our caucus is going to tolerate that kind of hatred.”
 
Clearly, the Orange Monster is incompetent, cruel, stupid, ignorant, authoritarian, deeply vindictive and thin-skinned but most prominent among all of his worst qualities is his racism. His tweets this morning, attacking American citizens and telling them they should “go back to where they came from” harkens back to the vitriol and hatred he stirred up with his “birther” racist nonsense. Apparently, he believes that all people of brown or black skin should be rounded up and removed from what he hopes to remake as an all-white country. By his logic, the only true Americans who belong here are the Native Americans, the “redskins,” since the rest of us stole their land from them. Everyone else here is in on a pass. Instead of recognizing this reality, our Racist in Chief has been very busy at the border, kidnapping children (and perhaps trafficking them as sex slaves to Russian and American oligarchs?), putting babies in cages, dividing up families at the border, cramming adults into cages for weeks at a time, without hygiene, water, deprived of sleep and forced to stand for days a time. Already several children and a few adults have died (perhaps I should say killed?) at the border and in our name. What will come next? Ovens?
 
Even so, “only 6 in 10 Americans (62%) say they disapprove of the treatment migrants are receiving at the border, but there’s a steep partisan divide,” according to a new CNN poll. “Democrats are near-unanimous in their disapproval (93% disapprove), and a majority of independents feel the same (60%), but most Republicans (62%) say they approve of the way migrants are being treated by the government after crossing the US-Mexico border.” 
 
62% of Republicans are happy about the situation fermenting at our border, and they probably would be delighted to hear about the exterminationof this “vermin” to use our Racist in Chief’s own word. This is what comes next once an entire group of people have been dehumanized, degraded and treated in the horrible manner we are witnessing at the border.
 
Let’s remember how the migrants who are trying to exercise their legal right to claim asylum at our southern border are being illegally and deliberately treated by this current administration in the cruelest manner possible. People are being locked up in cages where there is standing room only, for weeks at a time, where there is no ability to sit down or lie down, where they are given no running water, except to be told to “drink from the toilet,” where they are not allowed to bathe for weeks on end. The reports of these conditions are not skewed by politics. The Investigator General of this president’s own DHS, released a report along with video and photographs to document the deplorable conditions that these migrants are being illegally detained in. Yet 62% of all Republicans are all for it, apparently since their president has convinced them that these immigrants are less than human.
 
Since the Democrats refuse to hold the president and his party accountable for these and a thousand other worse crimes, by not beginning a formal impeachment inquiry, which should have begun the day after Muller’s Report was released, we will have to hope that international tribunals at the U.N. or at the Hague, will hold this administration legally responsible for its crimes against humanity, and specifically will hold our Racist in Chief as personally responsible for the death and mayhem that he alone has brought to our southern border. We can only hope and pray that Justice will one day be done, and that our current U.S. government will be held accountable for its crimes against all of humanity. 
 
Indeed, this cruel and inhumane treatment is the desired result of the Orange Demon’s policies. As John Kelly openly admitted a few months before he left the administration in disgrace, this abject cruelty and inhumane treatment was the whole point, as it was seen by the president and his evil minions to be a “deterrent” to those seeking asylum. His comments today are just one more step in our Orange Demon’s Make America White Againcampaign. 
 
In truth, if anyone needs to go back to the country where he came from, it’s the evil hatemonger in the White House. The sooner he leaves, the sooner we can regain our sanity as a country.
 
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BARBARIANS AT THE GATES

7/3/2019

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​“About 6 in 10 Americans (62%) say they disapprove of the treatment migrants are receiving at the border, but there’s a steep partisan divide,” according to a new CNN poll. “Democrats are near-unanimous in their disapproval (93% disapprove), and a majority of independents feel the same (60%), but most Republicans (62%) say they approve of the way migrants are being treated by the government after crossing the US-Mexico border.”
 
Let that sink in for a minute. 62% of Republicans are happy about the situation fermenting at our border.
 
Now, let’s remember how the migrants who are trying to exercise their legal right to claim asylum at our southern border are being illegally and deliberately treated by this current administration in the cruelest manner possible. People are being locked up in rooms where there are standing room only conditions for more than a week at a time, where there is no ability to sit down or lie down, where they are given no running water, except to be told to “drink from the toilet,” where they are not allowed to bathe for weeks on end. In many ways, the babies held in cages are being treated even worse. Disease is running rampant. Conditions are unsanitary, unsafe and inhumane. And this is not skewed politically. The Investigator General of this president’s own DHS, released a report along with video and photographs to document the deplorable conditions that these migrants are being illegally detained in. Yet 62% of all Republicans are all for it, apparently since their president has convinced them that these immigrants are less than human.
 
Regardless of what the majority of these mindless, heartless and morally corrupt Republicans think, this situation is intolerable. The administration must be held accountable for its crimes against humanity, along with all of the Republican Senators who refused House proposals to remedy the very conditions that the inspector general found during recent on-site visits.
 
According to an Associated Press report on Tuesday night, a federal judge in Seattle found the administration’s policies unacceptable. As the AP reported, “A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked the administration policy that would keep thousands of asylum-seekers locked up while they pursue their cases, saying the Constitution demands that such migrants have a chance to be released from custody.” In other words, the effort to deny these immigrants the right to bond hearings was illegal.
 
The AP report went on to explain: “U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said that as people who have entered the U.S., they are entitled to the Fifth Amendment’s due-process protections, including ‘a long-standing prohibition against indefinite civil detention with no opportunity to test its necessity.’ Immigration rights advocates including the ACLU sued to block the policy, which was due to take effect July 15. 
 
Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said in a written statement, “Thecourt reaffirmed what has ben settled for decades: that asylum-seekers who enter this country have a right to be free from arbitrary detention. Thousands of asylum-seekers will continue to be able to seek release on bond, as they seek protection from persecution and torture.”
 
But 62% of all Republicans, having lost their minds and sold their souls to the Orange Devil in the White House, want these asylum-seekers persecuted and tortured, simply 
for daring to assert their legal right to ask for asylum and to receive a fair hearing. 
 
Indeed, this cruel and inhumane treatment is the desired result of the Orange Demon’s policies. As John Kelly openly admitted a few months before he left the administration in disgrace, this abject cruelty and inhumane treatment was the whole point, as it was seen by the president and his evil minions to be a “deterrent” to those seeking asylum. Just today, in fact, the Orange Monster revealingly tweeted: “If illegal immigrants are unhappy with the conditions in the quickly built or refitted detentions centers, just tell them not to come. All problems solved!” The whole point of his policy, or lack thereof, is to cause such a humanitarian crisis at the border than no one with brown skin would ever want to risk asking for asylum ever again. It’s just one more step in the Orange Devil’s Make America White Againcampaign.
 
For these 62% of Republicans, anyone who refuses to wear a MAGA hat deserves the same kind of treatment, and that goes for Democrats, liberals, anyone who doesn’t agree with the idea of their Dear Leader. Indeed, they cheer on the likes of over one-half of all of the border agents within the CBP, who wrote scurrilous and dehumanizing and sexually offensive postings on their secret Facebook page attacking AOC, and the other Democratic members of the House of Representatives, who dared yesterday to visit and report on the atrocities happening in these U.S. concentration camps on our southern border.
 
What concerns me most, other than my concern for those being inhumanely treated at the border, is that 38% of my fellow Americans approve of this type of cruelty and barbaric treatment at our southern border. 
 
In truth, there ARE Barbarians at the gates of our southern border, but all of the Barbarians are on our side of the fence.
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DANCING WITH DICTATORS

6/30/2019

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Let’s review our president’s latest embarrassing display of immorality, incompetence and ignorance on the international stage: First, he mockingly asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop interfering in our elections, with a wag of his finger, and a laugh and a wink and a nod, and only after a reporter put him up to it. Then he joined with Putin in laughing about “getting rid of” journalists, again bringing up “fake news” (meaning any in the press who dare to report and print the truth about him). 

As Margaret Sullivan wrote in her editorial in the Washington Post over the weekend, our president “bonded with Putin over his scorn for journalists. ‘Get rid of them. Fake news is a great term, isn’t it?’ the president said. ‘You don’t have this problem in Russia, but we do.’” Our idiotic and dangerous president says this to a dictator of a country where nearly 60 journalists have been murdered, all the while yucking it up with a murderous thug and our greatest adversary. 
 
But even that was not enough for our authoritarian American president who finds himself far more comfortable and chatty with murderers, thugs and dictators than with our democratic allies. Indeed, in yet another disgusting display of groveling, the OM praised and embraced his “friend” MBS for “doing a spectacular job.” 
 
If you remember, MBS is the murderous crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who ordered the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, the grotesque details of which were recently made public in a special United Nations report. Apparently, our president was congratulating MBS on the great job he did of dismembering an American journalist into body parts that could then be conveyed in suitcases out of the Saudi Embassy in Turkey.
 
But even then, the Orange Monster was not done. On Friday, he invited North Korea’s murderous dictator Kim Jong Un to another photo-op summit in the demilitarized zone at the border between North and South Korean. This is now the third PR coup our president has granted Kim, apparently his love-letter pen pal, while asking for nothing in return. If anything, our idiotic president has made situation far worse than that, by ignoring and refusing to acknowledge the ongoing missile tests that our intelligence agencies all say North Korea is continuing to conduct.
 
Apparently, our president has never met a murderous dictator whom he didn’t admire. He loves dancing with murderous thugs and other mobsters.
 
This only makes sense, since the Orange Monster’s uncontrollable desire has always been to dominate and to control everyone and everything. For him, the whole point in having money is possessing enough power and dominance to lord it over everyone else. This has been the pattern of his entirely lazy and spoiled existence, wasting all of the $480 million he inherited from his rich daddy on his own vanity, avarice, lust and greed. Indeed, he has displayed the same need to control and to dominate in nearly all of his sexual exploits with women, where, as he himself admitted, he likes to “grab ‘em by the pussy,” and even with his first wife Ivana, who accused him in court filings of violently raping her (including tearing her hair out of her head).
 
Now, E. Jean Carroll has brought forth the latest charges of rape against our sitting president. Her telling of the tale only confirms yet again what he himself bragged about on the Access Hollywoodtape. It informs and reminds us of our president’s lifelong pattern of grabbing what he wants when he wants it, of his need to control, exploit and dominate, whether in the bedroom or the boardroom. He always has been and always will be a big-ass bully, with tiny little hands and an even tinier brain. 
 
Let’s face it: Our outlaw in chief admires murderous dictators because he wants to join their club and become one of them. For him, calling out journalists who report facts as being those who create “fake news” is just a first step; he wants the ability to silence his critics indefinitely, to execute them while at the same time vilifying them as the “enemy of the people.”
 
Unfortunately, the greatest enemy of the people we have in our country right now is our ungodly, embarrassing and ghastly president. The Congress of the United States must recognize the clear and present danger that he presents both to our democracy and to the world, and remove him from office before it is too late.

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WEAPONIZED INCOMPETENCE

6/26/2019

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The Mueller Report laid out many felonious acts of obstruction of justice, and the felon in the Oval Office has committed many more acts of obstruction, including contempt of congress, since the Mueller Report first came out. Added to this are two additional felonies committed by the president when SDNY named him as Individual-1—i.e., the current White House occupant—as an unindicted co-conspirator that committed felonious acts of conspiracy to defraud the American people by deliberately breaking U.S. Campaign Finance Law during his presidential campaign of 2016.

But our current president has done so many more evil and cruel things in the name of the American people, which should be listed among the many Articles of Impeachment brought against this criminal in chief when he is finally brought to an impeachment trial before the U.S. Senate. One of the worst High Crimes and Misdemeanors that this president has committed is his flagrant incompetence, particularly in his handling of the immigrants seeking legal asylum at our southern border, and then using his own incompetence and incoherence and that of the chaotic administration that he himself created, as a weapon to inflict as much cruelty upon innocent law-abiding immigrants as possible.

Let’s be clear: the criminal in chief has no use for the law UNLESS and UNTIL it is helping him and/or protecting him from prosecution. We have laws on the book protecting the legal rights of immigrants to seek asylum. Rather than obey this law, the incompetent in chief has chosen to ignore this law. Instead, he has deliberately annihilated wherever he can the chance for these brown-skinned immigrants to seek legal asylum. In breaking the law, he went much further, to identify and vilify these poor people as criminals, as non-human, as “vermin.” Then he lawlessly split up families, separating babies and children from their parents. Breaking yet another law he has held children in cages for months on end, withholding food, shelter, blankets, any kind of bathing and any kind of humane treatment. The despot in chief has even seen fit to withhold soap and toothbrushes...and sleep. We can now add crimes of inhumanity and violations of human rights to the list of our president’s Articles of Impeachment.

In addition, let's add Criminal Incompetence--how he has willfully weaponized his unrelenting incompetence to inflict cruelty. And in this same vein, perhaps we should also add Criminal Negligence.

None of the higher positions at the DHS who should be responsible for overseeing this unfolding humanitarian disaster, have been appointed by this president. All are “acting” appointments, by the president’s unconstitutional design, so that he can circumvent the constitutional duties of our senate to advise and consent, thereby making these officials accountable. The president hasn’t appointed officials to most of the thousands of unfilled positions in the government, because he doesn’t like following the law. He finds it much easier and more comfortable to break the law. And as he has thus far been allowed to break the rules without any consequence, he will continue to act like a king or an emperor. By making “acting” appointments only, the outlaw in chief avoids accountability both for himself and for his staff. Incompetence and Negligence then become not just weapons but excuses. His incompetence and that of his cabinet and whole dysfunctional administration is then used to justify all manner of crimes being inflicted by our government on the asylum seekers at our border. 
 
It is used to justify the illegal kidnapping of literally thousands of children. Who knows what happened to the kidnapped children. The government who stole them away, can’t tell you where they were taken or by whom, because they are too incompetent to have an answer. It is an incompetence born out of evil. The same sort of incompetence the German people used as a defense when they were asked about their own concentration camps. “We didn’t know what was going on,” they answered, when of course they did. 
 
“It wasn’t our fault,” is always the answer of incompetents when defending their acts of Criminal Negligence,  everywhere. “Don’t blame us.” 
 
In fact, whenever our idiot in chief is confronted with a vile act of his own making, he lies and says simply, “I know nothing about that. Don’t blame me.”
 
This president and his evil administration and “acting” appointees, who are willing accomplices to the deaths and deprivations now happening at the border, continue to use their own incompetence and “lack of knowing” to justify the sleep deprivation and other tortures being inflicted on innocent children, while they also deprive them of soap and water or a dry diaper or even someone who knows how to change a dirty diaper.
 
This weaponized incompetence is used to justify the deaths of immigrants attempting to cross the border when all of the Orange Monster’s attempts to thwart their legal right to asylum have proven effective, leaving them no other choice but to literally swim for their lives. The recent photograph taken of the corpses of a father with his infant daughter after drowning in their attempt to reach American soil is a reminder of all who have died as a result of this criminal president’s actions.
 
It is used to justify the murder of seven children who have died in the last few months while being held in our government’s concentration camps. 
 
Mueller’s newly announced testimony on July 17 cannot come too soon. It is long past time already, not merely to begin formal impeachments hearings, but to remove the criminal thug from office that the Russian government selected as our 45thpresident. He needs to be removed before more innocent children, already abandoned to despair in cages, die before our eyes. It is time for the one who caged these innocents to be put into a cage himself.
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OUR ARSONIST IN CHIEF

6/23/2019

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​There are so many applicable nicknames that have been used to accurately describe our current president: The criminal in chief, the orange monster, the liar in chief, the Russian Connection, the bungler, the charlatan, the idiot in chief, the toddler in chief, the Kompramant Comrade, the Undecider, a Whiny Little Bitch, Individual -1, the Unindicted Co-Conspirator, and on and on. But I believe there is a new nickname for our current president that most aptly describes the clear and present danger that he represents to our democracy, to our nation, and to the world. More than anything else, he is the ARSONIST IN CHIEF, one who loves creating fires wherever he goes, always taking credit when he manages to put out an occasional fire that he himself created. He is, in fact, a toddler in chief who loves playing with matches. 
 
Fire alarms sounded earlier this week when this bumbling president nearly took us into an unnecessary war with Iran. Our president, who has no coherent policy on anything let alone foreign policy, eventually ordered a military strike on Iran, before ordering a stand-down with only minutes to go. And remember, it was he who created this fiery situation  in the first place by tearing apart the nuclear agreement with Iran and with all of the other signatories to the agreement that the Obama Administration wisely worked so long and hard to create.
 
Aside from all of the crimes that the current president has committed while in office, and putting aside his blatant racism, xenophobia and race baiting as well, he is both unfit and dangerous. Every day that he continues to be allowed to disgrace the presidency, he presents a clear and present danger to the National Security of this once great nation. We can only ask: What new and unnecessary fire will our arsonist in chief create tomorrow or the next day or next week? And what, if anything, are we going to do about protecting our country from this out-of-control president?
 
The fact that the vile pile of poo sitting behind the Resolute Desk remains in office is an abomination of justice. That proceedings have not even begun yet to impeach, remove, indict, arrest, and convict this outlaw, is a criminal outrage all by itself. 
 
As I recently pointed out in a previous blog posting, only the Democrats in the House of Representatives have the power to hold our criminal in chief accountable, yet they continue to delay an impeachment inquiry, and refuse to act as a check and balance on this lawless president. House Democrats still don’t get it. We are in a fight for our lives and for our nation’s survival. The menace sitting in the oval office MUST be dealt with, much sooner than later. They still want to believe that they are playing in a game with rules by which both sides will abide, but this president does not play by any rules except those of his own making, and he clearly is not playing with a full set of marbles. 
 
By setting fires, both large and small, our Emperor in chief (akin to Caligula) is burning it all down, little by little, law by law, norm by norm. If unattended, these fires will join and grow, turning the many small fires into a conflagration, too large to put an end to. 
 
I don’t believe for one second that the White House madman came to a lucid moment of sanity in halting the very same military attack that he had ordered earlier in the day. This is just another one of the more than 10,000 lies that this president has told the public since Russia selected him in 2016. I DO BELIEVE THAT HE HAD TO BE TALKED OUT OF THE IDEA, probably by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 
 
No one can convince me that our idiotic and immoral president gave a rat’s ass about 150 possible Iranian casualties. I believe that our narcissist in chief was told that this decision would cause him pain, probably at the polls in November 2020, and that was why he called off such an unwise action. What matters to our lunatic in chief is always seen through the prism of what is best for him, not what is best for our nation, or even for his own party. 
 
As the arsonist in chief continues to set ablaze anything and everything that he can, House Democrats still don’t seem to understand that they alone have the power to put out all of the fires. The House Democrats ARE the Fire Department. They alone can put out the fires, and it is THEIR job to do so. But they continue to dawdle.
 
The fact that our 45thpresident has committed crimes both before and after taking his oath of office is indisputable. The only question is whether or not anyone in the Democratically-controlled Congress will EVER hold this president accountable and impeach him. But they should keep in mind, as they ponder on what actions to take for the sake of their own political survival, that our arsonist in chief stands over a world drenched in oil and gasoline, with a box of unlit matches in his tiny hands.
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WHILE HOUSE DEMS DAWDLE

6/19/2019

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​Only the Democrats in the House of Representatives have the power to hold our criminal in chief accountable, yet they continue to do nothing to thwart the ongoing and unrelenting crimes that he and his cronies have committed and continue to commit. Indeed, instead of doing their constitutional duty, to at the very least begin impeachment hearings, they continue to dawdle and shirk their responsibility. Despite the fact that they were given control of the House to act as a check and balance on our lawless president, they continue to bring a water pistol to a gunfight.
 
Today, for example, the gutless House Democrats whined about the unprecedented, non-existent and illegal claims that were made by the White House attorneys in a behind doors setting, insisting that Hope Hicks has immunity and need not answer any questions related to her time while serving in the White House. 
 
First, instead of insisting that Miss Hicks MUST answer questions in a public hearing, they agreed to yet another closed door hearing, where Miss Hicks and her White House attorney could get away with an illegal claim of immunity. Again, the House Judiciary Committee and its feckless and cowardly Chairman Jerrold Nadler allowed the White House to stick it to them again, without arresting Miss Hicks on the spot.
 
The Dems on the House Judiciary Committee acted as though they were powerless to do anything about this situation, when in fact they are not. Again, I must point out that the House Judiciary Committee has the power to arrest uncooperative witnesses by exercising their inherent contemptpowers guaranteed them under our constitution to enforce the balance of powers. They have all the power they need. They just don’t have the balls to use the power granted them by the Constitution for such situations. They have the power to arrest lawless witnesses like Hicks and McGhan and Bill Barr. They just don’t have the political guts to do it. Lacking in any internal fortitude at all, these House Dems in the Judiciary Committee, including my gutless Representative Ted Deutch, continue to allow witnesses and their attorneys to show nothing but contempt for Congress and our Constitution. The House Dems continue to allow witnesses to ignore subpoenas, to illegally refuse to answer questions. This time, rather than putting Ms. Hicks under House arrest, the Judiciary Committee allowed themselves to be outplayed yet again by an utterly lawless executive branch. 
 
Then, when this farce of a hearing was finished, the former model Hicks was allowed to strut down the halls of Congress, as though she were doing a fashion in full few of cameras, ignoring reporter’s questions just as easily as she was allowed to ignore the House’s questions and the law. 
 
Our outlaw president is laughing at the Democrats in the House, and in particular laughing at his aptly nicknamed nemesis ‘Nervous Nancy,’ and in this case, rightly so. The president is launching nuclear weapons in the House’s direction, and they are responding by throwing paper planes. Nervous Nancy and the House Dems who still follow her, have allowed the president to turn their investigations into comic distractions not worthy of public notice.
 
Democrats still don’t get it. They are in a fight for their lives and for our lives. They still want to believe that both sides will play by the same rules, but that time passed when the Russians selected our president in 2016, and the nation chose to do nothing about it. This president does not play by the rules, and neither do any of the criminal cronies who work for him in the executive branch. “A subpoena?” they all say. “So what? We’ll use it for toilet paper!” 
 
I can almost hear the laughter that fills the west wing of the White House tonight. The Dems continue to talk tough but refuse to act. “How silly we made them look again today! The suckers!”
 
In truth, Nancy Pelosi and the Dems have allowed the investigations in the House to be turned into one farce after the next, and all of the gutless House Democrats, in following Nervous Nancy, have proven only that political expediency is all they care about. Indeed, the oaths they took in which they swore to protect and defend out constitution mean little if nothing to them, certainly not enough to do the right thing in the face of an evil and vile threat to our nation. IF THE DEMS WON’T TAKE THE PRESIDENT’S CRIMES SERIOUSLY ENOUGH TO BEGIN IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS, WHY SHOULD THE PUBLIC EVEN BOTHER TO TAKE NOTICE?
 
There is a slow burning going on in Washington, DC. Can you smell it yet? It is the burning of our Democracy, little by little, stone by stone, pillar by pillar, law by law, norm by norm, with little and small fires here and there. If unattended to, these fires threaten to join and grow, turning the many small fires into a major conflagration, too dangerous and strong to put an end to. The House Democrats seem to be waiting for someone else to come and save our Democracy, to put the fire out, when they alone have the power to put out the fire, not realizing that the Fire Department isn’t coming to save them or us. House Democrats ARE the Fire Department. They alone have the hose with enough water to put out the fire. But they continue to dawdle, to whine, still refusing to act with any clarity or conviction of their purpose. Only the House Dems can turn the water on, to send Justice raining down with enough strength and power and authority, to save our Democracy while there is still time, before the fire consumes us all. They alone have the power to impeach the bastard, but they still remain too gutless to do the right thing. Why, oh why, did any of us bother to give these Democratic turkeys control of the House? Why when they refuse to put an end to this president’s ongoing crimes? Why? And why on earth are these gutless characters worthy of reelection? I can’t think of a single good reason at this point.
 
Of course, our criminal in chief has done everything he can to battle the truth with falsehood, to fight law with illegality, to blatantly blow past any guardrails and norms than have protected our Democracy until now. Despite the war on truth, what Kellyanne Conway termed alternative facts, reality and the real facts are clear and indisputable:
 
1.         The Mueller Report found that the President colluded with the Russians in encouraging our greatest adversary to help him with the 2016 election. Mueller could not find sufficient evidence of intent to charge that a conspiracy happened, but Volume One gives countless examples when the president’s campaign coordinated and colluded with the Russians. COLLUSION happened. If you don’t believe this, read the report. No felonies here, but clear and present evidence of High Crimes and Misdemeanors, up to and including the implications of treason.
 
2.         The Mueller Report found that the President committed at least ten acts of felonious Obstruction of Justice. That’s 10 felonies right there.
 
3.         The criminal in chief has already been named an unindicted co-conspirator to defraud the United States who broke two campaign violations of law in the SDNY. Add 2 more felonies.
 
4.         Since the Mueller Report was released, the president has committed literally hundreds of acts of obstruction of justice, witness tampering and witness threatening, in the light of day, while cameras run, in full public view or on twitter. Let’s cut the ass in chief a break and limit these hundreds of crimes to a minimal 20 felonies. 
 
By my count, that’s 32 felonies that our criminal president has committed, just since he took office. God knows how many more felonious acts will be revealed before the myriad of investigations into the criminal enterprise that is the Orange Monster’s monstrous activities, and how many more laws this outlaw will break before he leaves office. As he now obstructs justice on a daily if not hourly basis, the Articles of Impeachment against this dreadful and odious public menace if ever the House acts to impeach.
 
As I said recently in another blog, holding the president to account for his illegal and asinine behavior is no longer Mueller’s job. He put the ball squarely in the House’s court, even going so far as to hold a press conference weeks ago to try to publicly shame Congress into acting. Yet, still they do nothing. Either Congressional Leaders will begin an official impeachment inquiry or they won’t. We know the immoral Republicans in the House and Senate sold their souls to the Devil long ago, and that they will do nothing to protect our country or our democracy from ruin, as they answer to their Russian-appointed president and to Putin only. But most of us expected that the Democrats in the House would stand up and defend our democracy, not watch them calculating politically, hemming and hawing, and gnashing their teeth, and do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to protect our republic as we watch it being torn to tatters. 
 
The fact that our 45thpresident has committed crimes both before and after taking his oath of office is indisputable. The only question is whether or not anyone in the Democratically-controlled Congress will ever, EVER, hold this president accountable and impeach him. If they fail this test of courage, if they fail to do the right thing, then we can kiss the country we once knew and loved goodbye.
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THE LATEST RAVE REVIEW FROM THE READERS AT NETGALLEY

6/16/2019

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Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads out there!
 
Today, I wanted to acknowledge the latest of the rave reviews I have received for my new memoir SAINT UNSHAMED: A GAY MORMON’S LIFE from the many readers on the NetGalley website. This one, written by Jeff Linamen was so lovely and heartfelt that I wanted to share it with all of you. The full text of Jeff’s review as it appeared today on NetGalley appears below:
 
NETGALLEY REVIEW
June 16, 2019
Jeff Linamen (Reviewer) has just reviewed SAINT UNSHAMED: A GAY MORMON'S LIFE.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Full Text:

Hands down, one of the best memoirs I've ever read. Kerry Ashton bears every remarkable, horrifying, inspiring and deeply personal detail of his life. Sparing nothing, this is as raw and real as any memoir can get.

I held off writing this review, hoping the right words would come to me, but I'm still struggling to capture how deeply affected I was by this intense work. Ashton has bared his soul, giving us a profound gift of his words.


Ashton shares his story perfectly, alternating the distant past with more recent experiences; which prevents the journey from ever being too 'heavy' for the reader. Though Ashton's life has been quite different from mine, I could completely relate to difficult themes of the roles that religion and the search for self acceptance play in our lives. Ashton describes with profound clarity, his personal journey, in a way few authors have been able to articulate.

Though the title accurately captures the content of the book, it doesn't celebrate the spirit and inspiration of Ashton's words. I feel blessed to have found this- and taken the remarkable journey that carried me through, page after page. I can't recommend this highly enough.

******

 
My thanks to Jeff for his beautiful and touching review. I deeply appreciated his taking the time to give such a strong recommendation for my book. 
 
Also, I wanted to remind everyone that in celebration of Gay Pride Month, the eBook version of my new and critically acclaimed memoir, SAINT UNSHAMED: A GAY MORMON’S LIFEis being offered at half-price during all of June (and until the 4thof July) in all domestic and international markets. With the eBook normally priced at $9.99 in the United States, it is currently available for only $4.99, at all domestic U.S. book retailers online including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
 
Debuting on its first day of release on April 27, 2019 as the #1 Bestseller on Amazon’s New Releases in Gay Studies, my memoir’s First Edition is currently available in both Hardcover and eBook formats. Hardcover retails at $28.95. The eBook will remain on sale at $4.99 through Friday, July 4thonly.Both the eBook and Hardcover can be purchased at all online booksellers. In addition, to celebrate Gay Pride Month, the Hardcover version of my book can be purchased at the discounted price of $25 on my author’s website at KerryAshton.com. 
 
Thus far the book has received unanimous critical acclaim in all of its Editorial Reviews. Clarion Books, for example, praised it as “A triumphant memoir!” Blueink Reviews hailed it as “A powerful and detailed memoir” while exclaiming, “Ashton is a passionate, unfailingly candid narrator. Using vivid detail, he crafts absorbing scenes… giving us a compelling look at being gay in a community that seed this as a source of shame—a record of one man’s hurt and healing, while those with similar stories have yet to speak of their pain.” The Online Book Club Reviews said, “Ashton exposes the innermost parts of his psyche. A touching story with a strong senses of authenticity. An immersive experience!” And Kirkus Reviews, the foremost authority in the publishing industry, gave the memoir a rave review, calling it “A riveting story, alternating between the troubled child he was, and the proud, openly gay man that he became. A moving coming-out story!”
 
Most than anything else, in my memoir I explain how I rid myself of most of the shame I internalized as a child raised in the Mormon faith, and how I eventually became a SAINT UNSHAMED, and ultimately how I found, embraced, and fought for my gay pride and gay identity.

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CELEBRATING GAY PRIDE MONTH

6/12/2019

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​To celebrate Gay Pride Month, the eBook version of my new and critically acclaimed memoir, SAINT UNSHAMED: A GAY MORMON’S LIFEis being offered at half-price during June in all domestic and international markets. With the eBook normally priced at $9.99 in the United States, it is currently available for only $4.99, throughout June at all domestic U.S. book retailers online including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
 
Debuting on its first day of release on April 27, 2019 as the #1 Bestseller on Amazon’s New Releases in Gay Studies, my memoir’s First Edition is currently available in both Hardcover and eBook formats. Hardcover retails at $28.95. The eBook will remain on sale at $4.99 through Friday, July 4thonly.Both the eBook and Hardcover can be purchased at all online booksellers. 
 
In addition, to celebrate Gay Pride Month, the Hardcover version of my book can be purchased at the discounted price of $25 on my author’s website at KerryAshton.com. 
 
Thus far the book has received unanimous critical acclaim in all of its Editorial Reviews. Clarion Books, for example, praised it as “A triumphant memoir!” Blueink Reviews hailed it as “A powerful and detailed memoir” while exclaiming, “Ashton is a passionate, unfailingly candid narrator. Using vivid detail, he crafts absorbing scenes… giving us a compelling look at being gay in a community that seed this as a source of shame—a record of one man’s hurt and healing, while those with similar stories have yet to speak of their pain.” The Online Book Club Reviews said, “Ashton exposes the innermost parts of his psyche. A touching story with a strong senses of authenticity. An immersive experience!” And Kirkus Reviews, the foremost authority in the publishing industry, gave the memoir a rave review, calling it “A riveting story, alternating between the troubled child he was, and the proud, openly gay man that he became. A moving coming-out story!”
 
The first paragraph of my new memoir explains a lot: 
 
“I told this story once as fiction in the 1980s, but this time I tell the truth. I even tell the truth, in #MeToo fashion, about being violently raped by another man when I was 18, with a knife held to my throat—a secret I kept from everyone, including myself, for over 40 years. The rape, like other experiences I endured while a student at Brigham Young University, where I came out in the early 1970s, had a profound impact on my later life. But this story is not so much about my rape or my coming of age at BYU, as it is about the lifelong effects of shame itself, not only about how I internalized and inherited a wounding shame from my Mormon upbringing, but also how I eventually unshamed myself. It is about the journey of a lifetime, finding spiritual growth, self-discovery and healing along the way, while encountering many miraculous events that pushed me forward through darkness toward the light.”
 
Telling about my experiences during my four years at BYU—the rape, falling in love for the first time, police surveillance, harassment and arrest, while enduring three years of conversion therapy, including two years of electroshock treatments—provide the structure of my memoir. But intermittently I also share memories from my childhood, growing up Mormon in Pocatello, Idaho, and later from my adulthood. In one episode, I talk about his mother’s passing, and how I unconsciously blamed myself for her death. In others, I describe some of the battles with my religious father, and how Dad and I eventually came to forgive each other. These stories, like many others shared in the book, are poignant. Some—like the description that I provide of my rape—are sexually graphic. Some stories are hilarious. And some are dramatic, like those dealing with the domestic violence that I endured as a child.
 
I also share memories from my professional career as an actor and writer, both in L.A. and NYC, describing personal encounters with stars like Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis and Julie Harris, while sharing my experiences with famed writers Tennessee Williams, James Leo Herlihy (author of MIDNIGHT COWBOY), and John Rechy (author of THE SEXUAL OUTLAW), as well as my brief but profound affair with Stephen Sondheim. 
 
Lastly, I talk about the 12 years I spent in therapy, about my16-year battle with a rare and disabling cancer only recently won, and about my sexual journey that led me through S&M, kinky sex, and the leather scene, to the loving monogamous relationship I now enjoy.Most of all, I explain how I rid myself of most of the shame I internalized as a child in the Mormon faith, becoming a SAINT UNSHAMED, and how I fought for and embraced my gay pride.
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    Kerry Ashton

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